A Timely Death
by labstractl
Summary: A sevententh birthday party for Hotaru awakens old feelings, now who will she run to for comfort? When Death can appear at any time. Pairings: SetsunaHotaru, HotaruChibi-Usa, MinaRei, MakotoAmi, HarukaMichiru. Please R&R!


Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from this fan fiction, they all belong to the creators of Sailor Moon.

A/N: Here's a collab story I've done with a writer here named Royal Destiny. She's great. I hope you guys enjoy it and R&R. If enough reviews come in for the story we will continue it.

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**A Timely Death**

**Prologue**

**-**_Death Comes By Memory_**-**

Haruka sighed as she awoke in the middle of the night after maybe an hour of sleep. It wasn't that the wind senshi was upset or anything like that. It was mostly the fact that Hotaru, her little girl, was now turning seventeen. Haruka always knew that this was one of those things that she had to deal with and it didn't get any better as the years went by. It didn't help that she had to deal with Hotaru and Chibi Usa dating, which is what made this so much harder.

She carefully untangled herself from Michiru and got out of bed. As she walked to the door, she knew that all she needed to do was think.

"Ruka where are you going?"

Haruka immediately turned around to see Michiru looking at her. "I just want some time to think before Hotaru wakes up."

Michiru smiled. "Ok…but I think that you need to come and get some more sleep. It is 3:17 in the morning, besides," she patted the empty spot on the bed, "you can come sleep for at least a couple more hours before getting up."

Haruka pouted as she walked back to the bed. "What if I don't want anymore sleep?"

Michiru simply smiled again before saying, "You are just going to have to come back in bed anyways. I just want to spend time with you before we have to get ready for the party."

Haruka laid on the bed with her head on Michiru's shoulder and her arm around her waist. It never amazed Michiru how fast it took Haruka to fall asleep when they would cuddle like this. Michiru wouldn't admit it, but she was also feeling kind of lost with her daughter turning seventeen. Michiru knew that this was something that she shouldn't be feeling, but as a parent, she figured that it was natural.

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Beads of sweat covered the pale face of the senshi of death as she tossed and turned in her deep slumber. Shadows ran across the wall as lights from the outside peered through the blinds to drench the room with a warm glow. The nightmare intensified causing the young woman in bed to moan and claw at her flesh as a wounded animal. It was pain that could rivaled any other, and it eventually caused her to awaken by the sound of her own loud gasp into the dead of the night.

"Chikuso", Hotaru managed weakly.

Hotaru sat up in bed and buried her face in her hands causing jet black hair glistening from sweat to cover her arms. It was another nightmare from the past that interrupted another peaceful night and caused the death senshi to wonder when would she ever piece together her memories.

Glancing over at her alarm clock she blinked twice to focus her eyes and saw that it was only 6:30 am. In just about another six hours the other sailor senshi will have arrived at the house to celebrate her seventeenth birthday.

'I might as well go to the work out room since I am already sweaty,' Hotaru thought as she pulled on a pair of sweat pants and a T-shirt.

Carefully she walked down the stairs to not wake the others in the house. She was halfway to the gym when she noticed a soft light coming through the cracked door of the study room.

"Setsuna-mama," Hotaru smiled.

A gentle knock on the door and the sound of the time senshi sultry voice led Hotaru into the room and into the presence of the other outer.

Setsuna looked up from her desk filled with notes and smiled, "What are you doing up so early?"

Hotaru blushed a bit, but returned the smile shyly, "I was just going to get my work out in before Haruka-papa take over the gym for her training."

A light chuckle rang softly throughout the room as the time senshi enjoyed the silent joke about the wind senshi. "Yes, Haruka can be quite anal when it comes to training before the racing season begins," Setsuna nodded.

"Tell me about it!" Hotaru scrunched up her nose at the thought of Haruka-papa turning red from trying to bench press a set of weights too heavy.

As the senshi of death animately talked, Setsuna took a moment to really look at her and notice the change of maturity. Hotaru had allowed her bob to grow out a bit and now long silky black hair cascaded down her back. If it was even possible it seemed that her eyes took on a darker shade that made her violet eyes quite unusual. Her figure although taller was more defined with muscles and by curves.

"Don't you agree Setsuna-mama?" Hotaru looked at the senshi of time questioningly with clear eyes.

"Wha...?" Setsuna blinked.

Hotaru smiled wryly, "I think you have been up too long. You seem to be dazed out into space. Unless I am just boring you with my conversation."

"Nonsense! I just have so much on my mind lately as far as work is concerned," Setsuna looked away uncomfortably.

"Hai," Hotaru agreed. She took that moment to walk back towards the door and then grabbed the handle of it. "Well I should let you get back to work, get some rest later."

"Now, who's the concerned parent?" the time senshi pointed out with a smile. 'I do not understand why my mind been wondering off lately,' she thought in frustration. "Thank you for caring."

Hotaru brushed her hair that fell into her eyes away and smiled, "No problem. Good night Setsuna-mama!"

She left the room and went to the gym where she tried to work off the rest of the nightmare that lingered in her mind. It drove her to push the limits of her strength until she could not manage to lift another pound.

'Why didn't I tell Setsuna-mama about my nightmare,' she thought as she made her way back to the bedroom. Shaking her head, Hotaru could not understand the conflicting emotions she felt whenever she was in the presence of the time guardian.

The sound of the alarm clock set for 9am broken her out of the deep thoughts and crashing back into reality. 'What the hell am I going to wear?!' Hotaru asked herself frantically.

Hotaru quickly got jumped out of bed and ran to her closet. She didn't really feel like wearing a dress to her party like Michiru had said. As soon as she got to her closet, she grabbed a pair of dark blue, low-cut, tight-fitting jeans. The same exact pair that she knew her girlfriend would love. Next was time to pick out a top. Since it was January, Hotaru figured that it should be a long sleeve shirt. However, that was ruled out when she realized that all of those shirts were in the laundry. It took another twenty minutes and a massive pile of shirts before picking out a solid, form fitting, black t-shirt. After that was done, she laid them on her bed before heading off to the bathroom to shower.

About forty-five minutes later, Hotaru was dressed and ready for her party. She walked downstairs trying to contain her excitement on what all her presents were going to be, especially the one from her girlfriend. When the birthday girl made it downstairs, she saw Setsuna sitting on the couch.

"Is no one else awake yet?" Hotaru asked as she sat down on the couch.

"No," Setsuna said looking up from the newspaper she was reading, "it is just me." She didn't understand why she would be feeling so nervous in front of Hotaru now, but she shook off the feeling. "So are you excited for your party? I heard that Makoto was going to bake the cake here. Do you know why?"

Hotaru shrugged. "I don't know. It might be because her and Ami are still fighting."

That caught Setsuna's attention. "Why are they fighting? They don't do that."

"Apparently Ami wants to move in order to get a better job as a doctor and Makoto doesn't want to have to give up her job as a chef."

"Oh," Setsuna sighed. It was just like being back in the Silver Millenium, but without certain things being allowed in this time. "Well, I'm sure that it will work itself out."

"I hope so." She heard footsteps coming down the stairs and smiled when she saw Haruka and Michiru. "Good morning Ruka-Poppa, Michiru-Momma."

Haruka walked over and hugged her daughter. "Happy Birthday Princess." She kissed the top of Hotaru's head before walking to the kitchen.

Michiru walked over and sat down next to Hotaru. "I want to talk to you about tonight."

"Ok," Hotaru was confused because she told her parents a couple months ago that she was spending the night with Chibi Usa.

"I'm not sure that I want you going out tonight with Chibi Usa."

"Why?!" Hotaru could not believe what Michiru was doing to her.

"Because you should spend your birthday with us."

"This isn't fair!" Hotaru exclaimed. "You knew that Chibi Usa got these concert tickets for my birthday like four months ago."

Setsuna sat on the couch pretending to read the paper. She didn't agree with what Michiru was doing, but she didn't agree with how Hotaru was handling it.

"I never agreed to this." Michiru said. "I'm not letting you go off on your own like this at seventeen."

"That isn't fair!" Hotaru shouted as she left the living room. She couldn't believe that her entire birthday had just been ruined.

Setsuna watched Hotaru leave the room. She felt conflicted because she agreed that what Michiru did was wrong, but then again the way that Hotaru handled it wasn't very good either. "I'm going to go see if I can't find her."

"Ok, but I don't think that is going to help." Michiru said as she stood up and walked to the kitchen.

Setsuna didn't care what Michiru thought at that moment. She shouldn't have ruined Hotaru's birthday like that. She walked up the stairs and heard crying. Setsuna found it weird that Hotaru was crying. When she walked into the room, she saw the younger woman crying on her bed. Setsuna walked over to the bed and said, "Hotaru I'm sure that Michiru is just worried about your safety."

Hotaru recognized the voice, but all of the sudden she couldn't place it. She looked up and said, "Pluto…what are you doing here?"

**To Be Continued...**

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A/N: Wow, it's getting pretty interesting! What do you guys think will happen next? Stay tuned and review! 


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